Comrade M. Re-Narrating the Red Brigades in Translation

The Red Brigades were a left-wing group that fought an armed struggle for communism in Italy from 1970-1982. Former members have written about their experiences: I have translated one of these, Compagna luna by Barbara Balzerani. Translating this raises ethical questions about my position towards the text’s representations of politics and history and how my position is marked by the choices I have made to translate context that a contemporary English-speaking reader needs to understand it. This enlarges translator ethics to consider the translator as politically engaged and creating new representations of politics and history in a new cultural context.